House of Cards
by soraxtsuna123
Summary: The gang is bored during summer. Ponyboy decides to show them some card tricks. (*Instructions on how to do the magic/card tricks are inside. Plus: bonus magic trick at the bottom if you read all of it*) This is more for showing the tricks than the reactions. One-Shot


Summer break was always boring for a greaser. Unlike Socs or the middle class, greasers didn't have the money to do anything really cool. They could hold parties and fool around, but no one wanted to do that all the time. A number of greasers had to work so that leaves the others behind to bore all day. Some days, the whole gang of greasers get time to spend together, though it probably wouldn't be any fun.

Ponyboy was sitting, cross-legged, on the floor behind the coffee table. He looked up at the TV that had repeated the same episode of _The Road Runner Show_ for the fifth time today. Two-Bit was getting bored of watching the show as he waited for Mickey Mouse to come on. Johnny had retreated to the kitchen where Soda and Steve were playing poker. Dally was watching the match as he flipped his switch-blade in and out. Darry was reading the morning newspaper in his armchair.

"Can you turn off the TV? I'm beginning to memorize the episode," Darry said, putting down the paper.

"Well, what else am I supposed to do?"

"Do whatever you feel like."

Ponyboy exchanged his look to the deck of cards that were now being shuffled. "Do you want to see some simple card tricks?" he asked.

"You know card tricks?" Steve asked, turning his attention to the youngest greaser.

"I'm not a great magician or anything. I just… procrastinated during school and I learned some tricks. Do you guys want to see or not?"

They all agreed and joined him at the coffee table. Soda handed him the cards that were recently shuffled.

Ponyboy looked through all of the cards and moved the cards nine and eight of spades and clovers to the top of the deck. He made sure that it looked like he was shuffling as he moved around the four cards so that the nine of spades was on top of the eight of clovers, and the eight of clovers was on top of the nine of clovers. He placed the eight of spades on the bottom of the deck.

"So, what I'm going to do here. I'm going to be taking out the chosen cards out from the middle of the deck. So, let's say I chose the top cards," Ponyboy said as he showed them the nine and eight that were on top of the deck. He lowered the cards quickly so that no one could process what the suits they were. He gave the cards to Johnny. "Can you place the cards somewhere in the deck?"

Johnny took the cards and placed them separately in the deck Ponyboy was holding.

"Okay, so in the count of three, I'm going to take the cards that I showed you out from the deck in one quick motion," Ponyboy continued. He gripped the two cards that were placed on the top and bottom of the deck tightly so that the cards would stick to his hand. He held out another hand to catch the deck later. "One…Two…Three…" On the last count, Ponyboy flicked the deck so that it would come out of his hand and into the other, leaving the top and the bottom card behind. He flipped the nine and eight over to reveal the cards, but didn't comment on the cards being different suits.

"Holy…" Soda muttered. The gang all looked impressed, some more so than others.

"I still have more." Ponyboy flipped over the cards and slowly started to fan them all out, but in reality, he was counting from the top of the deck to the tenth card. It was a six of hearts. Ponyboy memorized the card. "So, you see that these cards aren't rigged, right?"

They nodded.

He flipped the deck over again. "I'm going to guess the card that I will give you, using math. So, Two-Bit, pick a number between ten and twenty."

"Seventeen," Two-Bit answered, moving in closer curiously.

Ponyboy started to place the cards from the top down on the table while counting them until I reached the seventeen card. He placed the deck aside and picked the seventeen cards up. "So, the number seventeen is made up of two numbers: one and seven. One plus seven is eight." Ponyboy started to place the cards down while counting to eight. He placed the extra cards aside. Ponyboy picked up the card that was on top of the new pile and handed it to Two-Bit. "This is your card that I'm going to have to read. Imagine it real hard so I could see it loud and clear."

Two-Bit nodded and stared at the card before staring at me.

"Okay…Um… Is the card red?" Ponyboy asked, putting up an act. Two-Bit nodded. "Is it a hearts card?" Two-Bit nodded again, looking even more shocked with the more words Ponyboy uttered. "Is it a number card?" Another nod. "Okay…Is it the six of hearts?" At that Two-Bit revealed the card, which was indeed the card.

He slapped the card on the table and threw his hands up. "How in the…"

"I can read you," Ponyboy answered and shuffled the cards. He looked through the cards to make it look like he was shuffling again and took out all of the aces and discreetly placed them on top of the deck. To help disguise the deck, I separated them into two to do a simple table shuffle but held the four aces so they would still come out on top. I bridged the cards and held the deck out. "Darry, can you split the deck into four decks?

Darry picked up the deck from my hands and started to separate the deck in quick, almost even piles.

Ponyboy picked up the first pile and took the top card and moved it to the bottom of the small deck and did the same thing to the next two cards while saying what he was doing aloud. He then took the top three cards of the deck and placed them on the other three piles before placing it back down on the table. "Darry, I want you to do the same thing as I just did to the rest of the piles."

Darry did as he was instructed and after a short while, he placed the last stack down.

"What should happen, is that… with some of my magic…" Ponyboy flicked the top of the four stacks. "These cards should be… Aces…of…all…trades…" As Ponyboy said each word, he flipped the top cards around to reveal the four aces.

"Sorcery…" Soda yelled and Johnny sort of chuckled at that remark.

"You seriously had all this time to study and work but instead decided to just figure out card tricks?" Darry asked, looking at his brother disapprovingly.

"Yes. Man, if you didn't want to do anything but in the same time be productive, what else would you do? But, here's another trick." Ponyboy shuffled the card and made sure that they were all straight by tapping the side of the deck on the table while checking what the last card was. Two of diamonds. He memorized the card and looked away, fanning the cards out. "Steve, pick a card, any card."

Steve pulled out a card from the middle and looked at it while Ponyboy put the deck back together. Steve showed the card to the rest of the gang. The king of diamonds. Ponyboy looked back and instructed, "Put the card back on the top of the deck." After that was done, Ponyboy placed the deck on the table. "Now, make a full split."

Steve took roughly half the deck and put it on the table then took the bottom of the deck and placed it on top of that one. Ponyboy grabbed it and started to look at all of the cards for the two of diamonds. "Now, since you chose the card, the card bounded to you." Ponyboy said, distracting them as well as made a story. He found his card that he memorized near the middle of the deck. He now knew that Steve's card was the king of diamonds. "I'm looking through these cards, and I shouldn't be able to find your card because the card bounded to you." Ponyboy looked up and just spit the deck so that it looked like I was just making a point. Ponyboy reorganized the deck so that the card he originally memorized, the two, was back on the bottom and the king was on the top. For extra kicks, Ponyboy shuffled and made sure the king stayed on the top. He did a quick bridge for looks.

"Bounded to me? That's a bunch of bull," Steve said, crossing his arms.

"But it's true! I'm going to try to find your card from the top of the deck, but to do that, I need to know what your card was. What was it?"

"King of diamonds."

"Alright, so the card isn't bound to me, like I said. So I'm not going to be able to find it." Ponyboy began to place the cards down from the top as he spelled out the card. "K-I-N-G-D-I-A-M-O-N-D-S." At the last letter, Ponyboy flipped over the card. It wasn't the king.

"See? Bull…"

Ponyboy flipped the top card around and placed the small pile back on the top of the deck. "Now, you're going to be able to find the card. Just do what I did. First, though, let me place a bit of magic in the cards." Ponyboy flicked the top of the deck and gave it to Steve who started to spell out his card. When he flipped the last card over, the king of diamonds blared in his face.

"What?"

The young greaser chuckled and got the deck back, shuffling and memorizing the bottom card again. "My next trick is basically the same concept." Ponyboy fanned out the card. "Dally, pick a card, any card." Dally did and showed it to the rest of the gang. The card was the queen of clovers. "Place it back on the top of the deck and do a full fold so that the card is lost."

He did as he was told and Ponyboy picked up the deck and started to go through it to find the card he memorized. On the bottom of the card, and closer to the bottom of the deck, was the queen of clovers. He pulled it out and showed it to them. "This is your card, right?"

Dally nodded, looking mildly impressed at the quick find.

"Okay, there's more. I need to a select few cards though." Ponyboy took out one of each card in the stack and started to rearrange them in a particular order and showed them to the gang. "These are random, right?" They nodded.

Ponyboy began to spell out the first card, ace, as he moved the card on the top to the bottom of the stack. After the letter 'e' card was placed on the bottom, he took the top card and flipped it on the table. It was an ace. He began to go up the numbering system of cards, spelling them out and flipping cards over. The cards went in perfect order from ace to king in no time.

Ponyboy quickly shuffled the card and looked at the top card of the deck with a slightly slide of fingers. Ace of spades.

"I have one more simple card trick before I move into the jaw dropping ones. So, Johnny, can you split the deck. Just split. Don't do a full split." Johnny did as he was instructed. Ponyboy picked up the stack that used to be the top of the deck and placed it so that it was horizontal to the vertical deck. "Now, that was simple, right? I didn't try anything or ask you something difficult?"

"Yeah," he replied.

"Okay. So I want you to pick up the split card." Ponyboy lifted the top stack as Johnny picked up the card. "That's your card. I want you to envision the card. I'm going to draw the card out as I see it. I'm going to get a paper and pen." He left to go to his room. While he was there, Ponyboy grabbed a pad of paper and a marker that he would also be using for the last trick. He grabbed the deck of cards on his deck and took out an ace of hearts. He scribbled his signature on the card before he stuffed it in his pocket and returned to his seat. Ponyboy was lucky that Two-Bit steals decks of cards so often. Ponyboy looked back to Johnny before writing the letter 'A' and then drawing a spade next to it. He showed it to Johnny. "This your card?"

Johnny looked flabbergasted at the drawing and quickly nodded his head. "Yeah…" he muttered out.

"Okay, I'm going to do something cool now!" Ponyboy stood up and took out three cards. "This is called, find the queen. It's a really easy game. All you have to do is find the queen." Ponyboy had the three cards face down but flipped over the queen. "The other cards are jokers." Ponyboy placed the cards in a small pile and flipped them over one at a time, making sure to flip the joker back around for the trick to work.

"Alright, let's play," Soda cheered.

"So which one is the queen?"

"The card on the bottom."

"Correct." He showed the card before making it disappear in the bottom of the deck. He moved the order around so that it was opposite of the order. "Which is the queen?"

"The top card," Dally answered.

"Correct again. See? This game is easy. Let's go harder now." Ponyboy hindu shuffled the cards quickly and held out the stack. "Which is the queen?"

The gang was silent before Two-Bit spoke up, "the top card?"

Ponyboy flipped the card, but it came out as a joker. "Pick again."

"The middle card?"

Ponyboy took the middle card out. It was a joker. "Pick again," he said as he placed the joker back on the bottom of the deck without them knowing.

"It's obviously the bottom card," Steve said.

"Nope, that's the joker. Man, I thought you guys were confident in winning this game." I showed the bottom card which was a joker.

"What? How is that possible? There is only three cards. The three cards couldn't have been jokers."

"Steve, calm down…" Soda muttered, eyes wide open in wonder.

"Let's play again." Ponyboy shuffled but switched the cards so that the queen was in the middle.

"Well, it's probably not the last card because it was the last card last time," Darry said. "The top card."

Ponyboy flipped the card over. "Correct." He flipped the card back. "Now chose again."

"But it's in the middle."

"I know. Pick a different spot."

"Um… The middle card?"

"Correct again!" Ponyboy took out the middle card to show them before sliding it on the bottom of the deck.

"Wait…What?"

"Pick the last spot. I dare you."

"Okay. The bottom."

"Correct again!" He showed the bottom to be the queen. "And that is the game of 'Find the Queen'."

"Those were all jokers in the last round. Now they're all queens?" Dally asked, mouth ajar. Everyone in the gang's mouth hung open.

"One more card trick before I want to show you two tricks that don't involve cards. This trick will make us lose some cards though… It's literally the coolest trick." While he was talking, Ponyboy took out the ace and placed it on the top of the deck without them knowing.

"That's fine."

I flipped over the deck to show them what the cards were and fanned them out. "Okay, Dally, I want you to pick a card." Dally picked out the ten of spades. "Okay, take the marker and sign it so that there is only one card like that.

While Dally was signing the card, Ponyboy took out the ace of hearts that was somewhere in the deck and slipped it face down, under the ace of hearts on the top of the deck. He flipped over the signed card right before Dally finished signing the card and gave it to Ponyboy who placed it face-up on top of the card that was already face-up before turning them both around and picking up the top card, making it seem like he was picking up the card that Dally signed. Ponyboy folded the card to become a small square and instructed, "Put this in your mouth and bit down on it."

Dally looked at the folded up card quizzically but complied. He bit down on the card but let most of the card show.

"Okay, so I'm going to sign a card for myself so that you know that there is only one of my card," Ponyboy said as he flipped the second card over with the first card hidden behind it and signed it. He flipped it back on the deck, dropping his signed card and lifted Dally's card to make it look like he was repositioning his hands. Ponyboy placed the deck down and began to fold Dally's card. "I'm going to swap the cards." He placed the folded card in his mouth like Dally and started at the card in the other's mouth.

The atmosphere was intense. Slowly, Ponyboy moved the card with his tongue to go all the way in his mouth before taking it back out a second later. He grabbed the card and unfolded it and showed Dally's card. The gang lost it. The all stepped back and Two-Bit practically danced around. Dally hastily took out the card from his mouth and unfolded it. He held the card that Ponyboy had signed and looked at it like it had been possessed but quickly recollected himself.

"How did you do that? You didn't even touch the card in his mouth!" Steve yelled, throwing his hands up and leaving the living room as he gave up.

"But seriously, how did you do that?" Darry asked.

"I can't reveal the trick or it will lose its magic."

 **o-o-o**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own The Outsiders.**

 **Thank you for reading. Tell me what you think of it. I will also write out the step to step instructions on how to do the tricks in order below if you want to try them out. But, if you do, don't tell any of your friends how to do it. Just leave them to wonder and stay the superior in the card trick category. Tell me which trick you tried out and liked the most. If you have any questions, ask me and I will try to answer back (of course, not if you review the question as a guest because I won't be able to reply). Most of these tricks, I think are from Howcast, but it's been awhile since I learned these. The last trick was from me observing Collins Key do the trick and the second from last was another magician I observed, I don't remember.**

 **The tricks:**

 _(1)- 8/9 trick_

 _What you need:_ _Eight of spades,_ _Nine of spades, Eight of clovers, Nine of clovers, the rest of the deck_

 _Setup: On the top of the deck, place either an eight or nine down. On top of that card, the other number card that is of the same suit. On top of that card, is the same number card as the card as the first card you put down. Place the last card on the bottom of the deck._ (Note: The care numbers should be in the order of eight, nine, eight, nine, or vice versa. The suits should be clover, spade, spade, clover, or vice versa).

 _Action: Talk to the people you are showing the trick to and tell them that you are going to find and separate two cards that are hidden in the deck. Tell them that you are going to show example cards. Flash them the top two cards and lower the cards quickly after saying, "A nine and an eight," or something short like that. You want their brains to process what the numbers of the cards are and that they are black cards. You DON'T want them to process what the suits are._

 _Hand the two face-down card to someone to place randomly in the deck. Since they know the basics of what the cards are, they probably won't check the suits of the cards and would place the cards without checking. After they placed the cards in, you may or may not want to show them that you didn't bookmark the cards by moving the two cards between hands a couple of times._

 _When practicing the trick, practice the next step with both of your hands to find out which is more comfortable for you. Hold the deck in your comfortable hand and tightly grip onto the deck. Hold out your empty hand relatively close to catch the deck later. Remember to grip the top and bottom card tightly. Flick your wrist so there is enough force to send the deck to your other hand that is approximately on the other side of your body. The top and bottom card would stick to your fingers and come back with you. One hand should now hold the opposite suits of the two cards of the card that are hidden in the deck. The other should hold the deck. Show the two cards._

 **(2)- Guessing the card with math**

 **What you need: Deck of cards**

 **SetUp: Memorize the tenth card from the top of the deck.**

 **Action: Tell them to pick a number between 10 and 20. Whatever number they choose, start placing the cards down on the surface. Let's say, for example, they chose the number fourteen, so, place fourteen cards down. Place the deck aside and ask them what two numbers make up the number they chose. If it's a 10, 10 is made up of 1 and 0, etc. After they tell you, do the simple addition out loud by adding the two numbers together. For example, if the number was ten, one plus zero is one. Place down the number of cards as what you ended up with in the math. Take the top card of the new pile and show them the card without looking at it yourself. You should know the card already because the card they are holding up is the card you memorized in the beginning of the trick.**

 **Tell them that you are going to read their mind on what the card is. Tell them to envision the card. Make up an act and peer at them as if you are seeing through mist. Slowly describe the card in question form. In that form, describe the color, the suit, if it's a face card or a number card, before asking what the actual card is.**

 _(3)- Poker's Ace (Ace of all trades)_

 _What you need: The four aces, deck of cards._

 _Setup: Place the four aces on the top of the deck._

 _Action: Ask someone to split the deck into four stacks. Usually, people would split the deck by just dropping the bottom of the card. If they do it the other way (as in from the top of the deck), reverse the direction of the next step. From the leftmost pile (the four aces is in the right-most pile, or the last stack in the row), pick the pile up. Counting as you go, put the top card on the bottom of the stack you are holding and do the same to the next two cards. Take the fourth card, and place it on the next pile. Take the fifth card, and place it on the next pile. Take the sixth card and place it on the next pile. In other words, you are putting three cards on the bottom of the deck you are holding and then placing one card on each of the piles that are left on the surface. Place that pile down and tell the other person to do the same thing with the rest of the piles. Make sure they place one card on each pile._

 _When they finish, you may or may not flick each pile and say that you are putting magic on them. Then flip over the top card of each pile. The four aces should be on the top of each pile if you did it right._

 **(4)- Bounded card**

 **What you need: Deck of cards, and someone who can actually spell**

 **Setup: Memorize the last card of the deck**

 **Action: Fan out the card and look away to make it even more convincing. When they pick a card, put the card back in a pile and tell them to place their card on the top of the deck. Ask them to do a full split. Now the card you memorize is on top of their card and their card is closer to the bottom of the deck. Tell them the card is lost and flip over the deck to search for the card you memorized. While doing so, explain that since they picked the card, the card had bounded to them and stuff like that.**

 **When you find your card, make it look like you are still looking, but thumb their card and your card. Then tell them that you shouldn't be able to find it by just looking, but as you do that, separate the deck from the two cards you marked with your thumb. Keep distracting them by talking to them and move the cards back into a pile. Their card should be on the top of the deck again, and the card you originally memorized is on the bottom of the deck. If you want, you can shuffle the cards but make sure the top card stays the top card. That is crucial.**

 **Ask them what their card was. Once they told you, repeat that you aren't going to be able to find the card. Spell out the card and flip over the last letter card. Flip the card you flipped over again and place the pile back on top of the deck. Flick the deck and tell them you are putting some magic in and instruct them to do what you just did. Since you flipped the order of the cards around, the card they will flip over is their card.**

 _(5)- The easy, find you card trick_

 _What you need: Deck_

 _Setup: Memorize the last card._

 _Action: Do the same thing as the trick above, but instead of talking about bounding cards and repositioning the cards and the other steps. Just take out the card that that is under yours and show them the card._

 _ **(6)- Alphabetizing Cards**_

 _ **What you need: One of each card.**_

 _ **Setup: Place the cards in this order: 3-8-7-A-Q-6-4-2-J-K-10-9-5. How to memorize the sequence: In the year**_ **387** **there was** **A** **Q** **ueen that was** **64** **years old. She had** **2** **sons named** **J** **ack and** **K** **evin in the year** **1095** **.**

 **Action: Spell out each of the cards while placing the top cards on the bottom of your stack. You will start out spelling the word ace. With each letter you say out loud, place a card to the bottom of the stack. Since you start with an ace, flip the card that is under the last card, or the card after the 'e' card over. Spell out every card with the same process.**

 _(7)- Drawing the card_

 _What you need: Paper, pen, deck of cards_

 _Setup: Memorize the top card_

 _Action: Ask the other person to split the deck but not a full split. After they do, ask them questions about if that was easy to distract them a bit. Take the stack that used to be on the bottom and place it horizontally on the other pile. Keep talking and then pick up the top stack. Tell them to pick the top card of the pile that was left on the table. That card is the one you memorized. Ask them to think about the card and then draw the card or write the number or letter then the suit._

 **(8)- Find the Queen**

 **What you need: An ace, a joker, and a queen. (Although, you can really pick any cards, as long as one is a face card).**

 **Setup: Place the ace card on the top. Under that card, place the joker. The queen goes on the bottom. Never show the ace card. You want to make sure that the other person thinks that there are two jokers and one queen. Start by telling them there are two jokers. When you "flip over the top card", you are flipping over the middle card. The ace is disguised as a joker. Place the card back down and show them the middle card by sliding the card out instead of lifting. After showing the joker, move the card to the bottom of the stack. That's basically all that it is. If you want to only have queens, you can do the same thing. Make sure you let the other person win a couple of times though to boost their confidence.**

 _(9)- Kissing Card Swap_

 _What you need: Deck of cards, marker, one extra card from another deck_

 _Setup: Before starting the trick, sign one of the duplicate cards and place it on the top of the deck. Take the other duplicate card and place it under the top card._

 _Action: Ask the other person to pick a card. The chances of them picking one of your cards is low, but, if it did happen, "accidently" drop all of the cards, or tell them to wait and tell you what their favorite card is. Then give them that card. But they probably wouldn't, so you'll be fine._

 _Give them the marker and tell them to sign the card. While they sign the card, flip your signed card, which should still be the top card around. Every watcher is distracted with the signature. Flip the deck around so that that the bottom of the deck is showing. By now, their signature is done. Grab their card and rub your finger on it to distract them as well as prove that it is dry. Place the card on the top of the deck, which is facing down. Place the card so that it would be face up when you turn the deck over. Turn the deck over and show that their card is on the top. Tell them that you need to fold the card and flip the face-up cards over. Drop their card which should be under your signed card now. Fold that card in half and then in half again. Instruct them to bite it._

 _Tell them that you are going to do the same thing and just say that you are just going to be using the top card. Flip the second card over with the top card hidden behind it and sign that card. Flip the card over to make it look like you are repositioning your hands for the fold. Tell them that you are going to put the deck down. Grab the top card, dropping the second card that you signed. Fold that card like before. It should be their card. Bite the card._

 _Focus on their card for an act. Do something to make it look like you did magic: snap your fingers, flip the card over in your mouth, put the card in your mouth and take it out again, etc. Reveal the card. Have them reveal their card. You have their signed card and they have yours._

 ***BONUS MAGIC TRICK***

 **What you need: A dollar bill, or any other paper money, a nickel**

 **What the trick will look like: The dollar bill is levitating/ staying in an unnatural position. Levitating in some angles that people look at.**

 **Action: Hide the nickel in your hand and have them give you a dollar or take out your dollar. You can give it to them to make sure that nothing is wrong with it. Take the dollar and show the face or the back to them.**

 **Discreetly slide the nickel near the bottom corner of the bill on the side of the hand you plan to balance the dollar on. Fold the dollar, hot dog style, and fold it again in another hot dog style. It is easier to balance the dollar on the smooth side. Place the area with the nickel on your thumb and let go of the other side. It is now balancing on your thumb.**

 **For more of an effect, place your other hand somewhere, slightly bent, to make it look like you are using magic.**


End file.
